All News articles – Page 1268
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News
Wragge & Co takes axe to legal support jobs
Top-30 firm Wragge & Co has confirmed that up to 30 jobs could go after a review of its legal support services. The announcement was made after the firm’s board proposed a new structure for back-office functions. The new structure includes a ...
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Desperate PI firms breaking referral fee ban – AXA chief
Personal injury law firms are continuing to pay referral fees for cases weeks after the ban came into force, a leading insurer has alleged. David Fisher, claims technical manager for the UK’s fifth largest motor insurer AXA, told a parliamentary event that existing legislation is not ...
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Law Society Excellence Awards now open for nomination
The Law Society is inviting legal professionals from across England and Wales to enter the Excellence Awards 2013. ow in its seventh year, and bigger than ever before, the event showcases some of the brightest minds and most innovative firms. ...
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Family arbitration: award show
I have reviewed with interest Lucinda Ferguson’s letter ‘"Final and binding" awards’. Lucinda refers to my ‘Family law arbitration wins’ article as ‘misleading in one respect, namely that "awards" made under the Scheme are "final and binding"’. I never stated that an award in arbitration usurps ...
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Airports: four decades of cancellations is enough
Last year I made two longish-haul journeys for the Gazette to fast-growing economies of interest to UK law firms. Neither of my destinations – Bogota and Erbil – had a direct flight from London. The trips involved spending time (and money) in Amsterdam, Madrid and Vienna. Even more graphically than ...
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Society and bar join hands against criminal justice plans
The legal profession has united in its opposition to the government’s proposals for fee cuts and reforms which lawyers say will ‘sabotage’ the criminal justice system. The Law Society and Bar Council today issued a statement on the four key planks of changes set out in ...
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Divorce advice
Many years ago at a local meeting of either Relate or the former Solicitors Family Law Association (now Resolution), I proposed to an eminent judge that government health warnings appeared on divorce petitions. The learned judge basically concurred. Many problems arise or are exacerbated by the ...
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Economy 'testing access to justice'
Access to justice is being tested by the ‘worst economic situation since world war II’, the president of the Athens bar told a pan-European delegation of lawyers today. In his keynote address, Ioannis Adamopoulos added that no matter how bad the economic climate, it was important ...
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Malaysian abuses
As a native-born Malaysian living in the UK, I was ashamed and distressed to learn about the reported treatment of defendants and assaults on lawyers trying to assist them after the April 2012 protest incident. In the 21st century this human rights abuse by a UN member state must not ...
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Will ABSs be allowed to cross EU borders?
A report was published by the European Commission this week, keenly awaited by dedicated followers of European legal fashion. It gives important insights into lawyer cross-border mobility in Europe.
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End-to-end negligence defence practice sets up as ABS
The first multi-disciplinary practice dedicated to defending professional negligence claims has successfully applied to become an alternative business structure. Triton Global Limited will consist of niche defendant firm Robin Simon as well as claims management company Devonshire Claims and loss adjuster firm Walsh PI. ...
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Midlands ABS issues ‘join us’ offer to insurers
A multi-service Midlands firm has used its new alternative business structure licence to issue a direct appeal to insurers to come on board with a joint venture. Shakespeares, a firm with 680 lawyers and staff across the region, said it was ‘ABS-ready’ and looking to team ...
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News
Learning more about contracted public defence services
In the summer of 1998, I visited the US to look at contracted public defender schemes. This was triggered by the prediction that they would be the ultimate destination of the Legal Aid Board’s franchising initiative. Public defender horror stories, particularly in the south of the US, are easy to ...
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News
The NHS constitution can bring about real improvements
by Alicia Alinia, a lawyer with Slater & Gordon and a trustee of Pain UK In my capacity as a trustee of Pain UK, I was invited to attend a recent all-party parliamentary committee session on the NHS constitution.
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Criminal legal aid cuts to reach £370m
The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that projected savings of £150m in fee cuts will not, as was expected, count towards required cuts of £220m a year - taking cuts in criminal legal aid to £370m. An official also revealed that the MoJ has no contingency ...
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30 to meet Grayling in legal aid crisis talks
The Law Society has published the list of the 30 criminal lawyers who will represent the profession at the first of two head-to-head meetings with the justice secretary in crunch talks over the government’s planned criminal legal aid reforms. The first meeting will take place at ...
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News
100 jobs at risk as BLP seeks 15% salary cost cut
City firm Berwin Leighton Paisner has confirmed it has put more than 100 London-based staff at risk of redundancy. The firm today announced it will consult on a redundancy programme affecting 58 legal staff and 44 secretarial workers. The firm aims to reduce salary costs by ...
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News
Pre-emption rebuke from Lords
Peers have warned the government to stop relying on a 1945 memorandum to give legal justification for acting in ways that pre-empt parliament. In a report critical of the current government’s behaviour, the House of Lords Constitution Committee says the so-called ‘Ram doctrine’ is ‘misleading ...